The Master forces the TARDIS to crashland on the day before New Year's
Eve 1999 in San Francisco, where the Doctor is shot by gang members and
regenerates. The Master possesses the body of an ambulance attendant and
deludes teenager Chang Lee into helping him open the Eye of Harmony in
the TARDIS. This will allow the Master to seize the Doctor's body for
his own. But it also causes the molecular structure of the Earth to
start decaying, thrusting the new Doctor and cardiologist Dr Grace
Holloway into a race against time to save the world.

Production

Since 1989, British expatriate Philip David Segal had been working to
forge a co-production deal between an American company and the BBC to make
a new Doctor Who series. These efforts began when Segal was working
for Columbia Pictures, but were stymied by the BBC's caution towards
putting Doctor Who back into production so soon after its
cancellation following Season Twenty-Six. Segal tried again when he
moved to Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment and, in June 1992, he
was joined in his efforts by Peter Wagg, producer of the eclectic
science-fiction series Max Headroom.

By now, Alan Yentob had become the Controller of BBC1; Yentob was fond of
Doctor Who, which meant that the programme had an advocate in the
upper tiers of BBC management for the first time in several years.
Nonetheless, matters were complicated by the involvement of other
parties in the discussions, most notably Universal Television (one of
Amblin's primary backers) and BBC Enterprises (the BBC's commercial arm,
which would become BBC Worldwide in 1995). With each organisation trying
its best to safeguard its own interests -- especially with regards to
budget and creative approval -- negotiations stretched into 1993.

On January 13th, 1994 Philip Segal became the new man in
charge of Doctor Who

Finally, an agreement was reached on January 13th, 1994. Philip Segal was,
for all intents and purposes, the new man in charge of Doctor Who.
Now the race was on to get a series ready to be pitched to the American
networks in time for the Fall 1994 season -- essentially giving Segal and
Wagg less than two months' breathing space. Segal had already had
preliminary discussions with The Phantom Of The Opera stage star
Michael Crawford about taking on the role of the Doctor, and also
considered Michael Palin from Monty Python to be another potential
candidate.

By now, Segal had been directed by Universal Television to use a studio
writer for the project. In particular, Universal pushed for John Leekley,
whose credits included Miami Vice and the forthcoming Knight
Rider 2010 TV movie. Segal was hesitant, preferring to go outside
Universal; former Doctor Who script editor Terrance Dicks was
amongst the candidates he was considering. However, he was also aware that
any fight with Universal would waste precious development time, and he had
enjoyed Leekley's script for the telefilm In The Company Of
Darkness. Consequently, Segal agreed to bring Leekley aboard.

Together with designer Richard Lewis, Segal and Leekley prepared an
expensive and extensive series bible entitled The Chronicles Of Doctor
Who?, which was intended to introduce Doctor Who in general,
and the proposed new series in particular. Segal and Leekley did not
intend to pick up where Season Twenty-Six had left off, but instead wanted
to tell the Doctor's story from the very start of his adventures in space
and time; although the basic tenets of the classic Doctor Who
series would be adhered to, the programme's mythos would be completely
rewritten.

The bible, which was made available on March 21st, was written from the
perspective of Cardinal Barusa (inspired by the Doctor's former tutor
Borusa, who had first appeared in 1976's The Deadly
Assassin). It introduced the Doctor and the Master, who were
half-brothers and both sons of the lost Time Lord explorer Ulysses,
Barusa's son (named after the mythical explorer who was known in Greek as
Odysseus, hero of Homer's The Odyssey). When the evil Master became
President of the Time Lords upon Barusa's death, the Doctor fled
Gallifrey in a rickety old TARDIS to find Ulysses. Barusa's spirit
became enmeshed in the TARDIS, enabling him to advise his grandson. The
Doctor took the TARDIS to “the Blue Planet” -- Earth, his
mother's native world -- to search for Ulysses.

The Doctor took the TARDIS to Earth -- his mother's native
world -- to search for his father Ulysses

The bible went on to detail the Doctor's encounter with the Daleks; they
were still creations of Davros, but he was murdered by the Master to
gain control of the Daleks. These events, clearly inspired by 1975's Genesis Of The Daleks, would have formed the
bulk of the pilot episode, in which the Doctor discovered a message left
by Ulysses, disguised in hieroglyphics he found in a relic room in Cairo,
Egypt. Various other possible adventures were then detailed, most of which
drew, to some extent, on stories from the original series. Many familiar
Doctor Who monsters were extensively revised. The Daleks were
hideous mutant creatures whose travelling machines -- appearing not
unlike those from the original series, albeit without a dome region or
external appendages -- opened up into a spider-like design. The
Cybermen, now called “Cybs”, were marauders whose cybernetic
parts were culled from a variety of sources, giving them a patchwork
appearance (although they were still vulnerable to gold dust). The Yeti
were gentle descendants of the Neanderthals. The bible concluded with
the last of the Doctor's adventures, in which he located Ulysses and
travelled back to Gallifrey to depose the Master and become
President.

At this point, the plan was to interest one of the American networks in a
pilot movie followed by a season of up to twenty-two episodes designed to
suit a one-hour timeslot (meaning about forty-five minutes of actual
programming). It was hoped that the pilot might begin shooting in early
July, with other episodes to follow immediately afterward; the start date
soon drifted back to August, and then September. Leekley began to flesh
out some of the sample storylines listed in the bible, with most work
concentrating on a revised version of The
Gunfighters, now called “Don't Shoot, I'm The
Doctor”.

The early list of potential Doctors included future
Doctors Peter Capaldi and John Hurt

Meanwhile, Segal and Wagg had begun the gruelling process of finding an
actor to play the Doctor. To this end, they secured the services of
British casting agents John and Ros Hubbard. In January and February,
enormous lists of actors (most, but not all, of them British) were
compiled. Amongst the names were Rowan Atkinson (Mr Bean; he also
played a future incarnation of the Doctor in the 1999 Doctor Who
spoof The Curse Of Fatal Death), Chris Barrie (Red Dwarf),
Sean Bean (Game Of Thrones), Jeremy Brett (The Adventures Of
Sherlock Holmes), Jim Broadbent (Moulin Rouge; another future
Doctor from The Curse Of Fatal Death), Pierce Brosnan (the fifth
James Bond), Simon Callow (Four Weddings And A Funeral, and later
a guest star in The Unquiet Dead and The Wedding Of River Song), Peter Capaldi
(ultimately cast as the Twelfth Doctor in 2013), Martin Clunes (the
British version of Men Behaving Badly, who had appeared in 1983's
Snakedance), Tim Curry (The Rocky Horror
Picture Show), Timothy Dalton (the fourth James Bond, and later
Rassilon in The End Of Time), Ralph
Fiennes (Schindler's List), Michael Gambon (the Harry
Potter films, and the 2010 Christmas special A Christmas Carol), Hugh Grant (Four
Weddings And A Funeral; yet another future Doctor from The Curse Of
Fatal Death), Anthony Stewart Head (the television version of Buffy
The Vampire Slayer and later a guest star in School Reunion), John Hurt (Midnight
Express, who would be cast as the War Doctor in the
fiftieth-anniversary special The Day Of The
Doctor), Eric Idle (Monty Python's Flying Circus), Derek
Jacobi (I, Claudius, and later the Master in Utopia), Ben Kingsley (Gandhi), Hugh
Laurie (House), Malcolm McDowell (Star Trek: Generations),
Ian McKellen (The Lord Of The Rings), Peter O'Toole (Lawrence Of
Arabia), Jonathan Pryce (Tomorrow Never Dies; he would also
play the Master in The Curse Of Fatal Death), and Patrick Stewart
(Star Trek: The Next Generation).

Efforts were also under way to cast the role of Borusa (to which the
spelling had reverted), with several performers on the list of possible
Doctors also given consideration. A well-known actor was preferred, and
some of the names suggested included Richard Attenborough (Jurassic
Park), Peter Cushing (who had played the Doctor in the two 1960s
Dalek movies), Kirk Douglas (Spartacus), Albert Finney (Tom
Jones), acclaimed Shakespearean actor John Gielgud, Hugh Grant, Alec
Guinness (Star Wars), Anthony Hopkins (The Silence Of The
Lambs), Burt Lancaster (From Here To Eternity), Hammer horror
film stalwart Christopher Lee, Jack Lemmon (Some Like It Hot),
Ian McKellen, Paul Newman (The Hustler), Gregory Peck (To Kill
A Mockingbird), Max von Sydow (The Exorcist), and David
Warner (The Omen; he would later appear in Cold War). The clear favourite, however,
was Peter O'Toole, who had provisionally declared his interest in the
project.

The favourite to play the Doctor was Irish actor Liam
Cunningham, but it seemed that he was unavailable

In early March, Segal and Wagg were joined by a third member of the
production team. This was Jo Wright, who was assigned by the BBC to
represent their interests in the production, and whose involvement came to
the surprise (and, at the time, the dismay) of Segal. Wright's prior
credits included Lovejoy. On March 9th, auditions were held for
several of the shortlisted candidates to play the Doctor, including
Anthony Stewart Head, Christopher Bowen (who had been Mordred in Battlefield) and John Sessions (later the voice
of Gus in Mummy On The Orient Express).
The favourite at this stage was Irish actor Liam Cunningham (who would go
on to play Zhukov in Cold War), but it
seemed that he was unavailable. With the casting still uncertain, more
ideas continued to be discussed, including Paul McGann, whose brother Mark
had auditioned on the 9th; however he, too, appeared to have other
commitments.

Around the end of March, Amblin began circulating the series bible to the
four American networks. NBC and ABC immediately passed on Doctor
Who. CBS president Peter Tortorici was interested in the show, and by
mid-April Segal believed that he could secure a commitment for a
two-hour pilot and six one-hour episodes (presumably to serve as
mid-season replacement series), but CBS then began to drag their heels
on a firm decision. Finally, on May 19th, the network informed Amblin
that they had decided not to take a chance on Doctor Who after
all: network head Howard Stringer disliked the programme, and had
overruled Tortorici.

That left FOX which, at the time, was the youngest American network. Both
Head of Series Robert Greenblatt and Trevor Walton, the Senior
Vice-President of the FOX TV movie division, were interested in Doctor
Who. However, the network was only interested in a two-hour movie,
with the possibility of a second -- not the full series commission that
Segal had hoped for. Finally, on June 28th, FOX ordered a Doctor
Who telefilm with the intent of having it serve as a “backdoor
pilot”: if ratings were sufficient, the property might shift
from their Movie of the Week division to the series division.

On June 28th, FOX ordered a Doctor
Who telefilm which would serve as a “backdoor
pilot”

On July 6th, Segal met with Doctor Who historian Jean-Marc
Lofficier and his wife Randy, accepting their offer to become unofficial
consultants on the telefilm. The Lofficiers would advise the production
team on matters of Doctor Who continuity, and could also act as
liaisons with the fan community. The question of a lead actor continued to
vex the production team, who were now casting their net wider, to a larger
pool of non-British talent. While Cunningham was still a preferred choice,
Jeff Goldblum (Independence Day) and John Slattery (Mad
Men) were now given strong consideration, with Segal also seeking
Yentob's opinion on Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks) and Aidan Quinn
(Legends Of The Fall). Also discussed were Alexis Denisoff
(Angel), Matt Frewer (Max Headroom), Rutger Hauer (the
film version of Buffy The Vampire Slayer), singer Chris Isaak and
Gary Sinise (Forrest Gump). Yentob, however, continued to push
for a British actor to play the Doctor.

Meanwhile, Leekley was working on the script for the telefilm, which was
simply entitled “Doctor Who”. He submitted his first story
proposal on July 25th, drawing heavily from the suggestions set forth in
the bible. In addition to the Doctor, the Master, Borusa, Davros, the
Daleks and the Cybs (who were dropped in later drafts), the TV movie
would now introduce a companion in the form of American WAC Lizzie
Travis, whom the Doctor meets in Blitz-torn London during World War II.
Leekley then produced a partial script on August 24th, amending and
completing it over the following weeks. It was now hoped that recording
could begin in November for broadcast in May, to resume for the
hypothetical ongoing series the following July. Filming in England had
been deemed too expensive, so Colorado and Utah were now being
considered along with British Columbia in Canada. At the same time, Wagg
was compiling a list of possible directors, including Michael Apted (the
7 Up films), Joe Dante (Gremlins), Leonard Nimoy (the
third and fourth Star Trek films), Alan Parker (Mississippi
Burning), Ridley Scott (Alien), and Peter Weir (Dead Poets
Society).

Steven Spielberg was concerned that John Leekley's script
veered too closely to his own Indiana Jones
franchise

Paul McGann was emerging as the frontrunner to play the Doctor, and given
the changing recording dates, he might be available after all. McGann
taped an audition piece on September 12th, but was wary of the five-year
commitment to Doctor Who that was being proposed. But even as
positive movement happened on the acting front, concerns about the
script ran the risk of grounding the project to a halt. Although FOX and
the BBC had both indicated their happiness with Leekley's work, it was
Steven Spielberg himself who raised an objection. The renowned director
was concerned that Leekley had veered too closely to his own Indiana
Jones franchise, and that there was not enough humour. On September
26th, Spielberg asked Segal to start again with a new writer. This meant
that principal photography would be delayed until at least February
1995.

Within the week, Segal had approached Robert DeLaurentis to overhaul
Leekley's script. DeLaurentis, who was recommended by Universal, was a
veteran writer/producer whose credits included St Elsewhere and
Alfred Hitchcock Presents. DeLaurentis wanted to make the script
more focussed and fun; his initial storyline (now called “Doctor
Who?”) was submitted on October 7th. Borusa's disembodied presence
in the TARDIS was dropped in favour of giving Lizzie a bulldog sidekick
named Winston, and the search for the Doctor's father (no longer named
Ulysses) was now resolved over the span of the movie, with the impetus for
an ongoing series changed to the Doctor's pursuit of the escaped
Master.

Segal was uneasy about the direction of DeLaurentis' work, but agreed that
the writer should proceed to a draft script. This was submitted on
December 17th, and saw his American companion renamed Jane McDonald while
Winston was all but eliminated. Of greater concern for the BBC,
DeLaurentis had reimagined the Daleks as shapeshifting humanoids. As
such, in later drafts, these Daleks were renamed Zenons. The Doctor was
also given another companion, an alien creature called Gog, who replaced
an ill-fated character named Sherman. FOX had now become unhappy with
the script, and advocated a return to Leekley's final draft. At the
start of February 1995, DeLaurentis left Doctor Who, which was
now the subject of a funding disagreement between FOX and Universal.
Furthermore, due to upheaval at Amblin as a result of Spielberg's
involvement in founding the DreamWorks SKG studio, that company was no
longer directly involved in Doctor Who. Nonetheless, in April,
the BBC confirmed that the movie was still being co-produced with
Universal, and FOX remained on board.

Matthew Jacobs suggested depicting the regeneration of
Sylvester McCoy's Seventh Doctor into a new Eighth Doctor

At the suggestion of Trevor Walton, Segal and Wagg next offered the
scripting duties to British-born Matthew Jacobs, whose credits included
Ruth Rendell Mysteries and The Young Indiana Jones
Chronicles. This was not Jacobs' first brush with Doctor Who:
his father Anthony had played Doc Holliday in The
Gunfighters, and the younger Jacobs had been present on the set.
When Jacobs began work on May 5th, it was decided to start fresh, with
the material written by Leekley and DeLaurentis largely discarded.
Mindful of the FOX network's younger-skewing demographics, Walton wanted
to avoid elements set in the past, as well as more outlandish alien
creatures like the Daleks and the Cybs. The Master would be retained, in
addition to the notion of the Doctor having a human mother. Jacobs
wanted to connect the new Doctor Who more explicitly with the
classic series, and suggested depicting the regeneration of Sylvester
McCoy's Seventh Doctor into a new Eighth Doctor. Segal had been
resistant to these sorts of linkages earlier in the development process,
but now agreed with Jacobs' idea.

On May 19th, Jacobs delivered a rough storyline, which began with the
Seventh Doctor arriving on modern-day Earth (in either San Francisco or
New Orleans). However, the dying Master had transmogrified himself into a
shape-shifting slick of DNA and attacked the Doctor, mortally wounding
him. The Doctor's body was found by a street kid named Jack. Jack brought
the Doctor to the hospital, where he was operated on -- unsuccessfully --
by Dr Kelly Grace (playing on the name of Rear Window actress Grace
Kelly). In the morgue, the Doctor regenerated; meanwhile, the Master
acquired a temporary human host body. Jack gained access to the TARDIS
using gloves he pilfered from the Doctor's body. The Master raised Jack's
father from the dead, and through him compelled Jack to take over the
TARDIS. As Hallowe'en approached, the Master used the TARDIS to unleash an
army of the dead. With Kelly's help, the Doctor returned to the TARDIS and
drew himself, the Master, Kelly, Jack and the dead into another dimension.
He defeated the Master, returned Jack to Earth and left with Kelly.

Various changes were made by the time of the next draft, on June 27th. The
setting was shifted to the days leading up to New Year's Eve instead of
Hallowe'en, and San Francisco was specified as the location. After
regenerating, the Doctor saw a vision of his mother. Jack used the TARDIS
key instead of a pair of gloves to enter the time machine. In addition to
Jack's father, Kelly was also confronted by someone from her past, and an
earlier suggestion made by Jacobs -- that Jack be killed only to be
brought back to life via the power of the TARDIS -- was included. Kelly
also reluctantly remained behind at the end of this version.

Doctor Who lost a key member
of its production team when Peter Wagg elected to return to his family
in London

As Jacobs began writing his first full draft script, Doctor Who
lost a key member of its production team when Peter Wagg elected to leave
the project to return to his family in London. Nonetheless, Wagg offered
to keep in touch with Segal and lend a hand -- albeit remotely -- whenever
he could. Jacobs submitted his initial draft on July 18th. Jack had become
Chang Lee, and the Master's host body acquired a proper identity in the
form of a fireman named Bruce. Kelly Grace was now Grace Wilson, and two
cartoonish hospital porters whom Jacobs had earlier mentioned were given
the names Bill and Ted, after the title characters in the time-travel
comedies Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989) and Bill And
Ted's Bogus Journey (1991), which themselves owed no small debt to
Doctor Who. Also introduced at this point was a young librarian
named Gareth.

The idea of the Master's body decaying throughout the story made its first
appearance; in this version, he became more reptilian. The Master was also
able to control his form, turning his arms into lassos at one point. The
Eye of Harmony was brought into play, serving as the link to the
Master's death dimension. Chang Lee now saw his late father, Jimmy Lee,
reflected in the Eye, and Grace later had a vision of her grandmother.
Chang Lee acquired an uncle, Sam, who was killed by the Master. This
time, after all four passed through the Eye of Harmony, the Doctor saved
Grace and Chang Lee (who was still killed and then resurrected) by
embracing his past after conjuring up the ghost of his dead mother. The
Master tried to repeat the Doctor's feat, and was destroyed. The Doctor
travelled on alone, leaving Grace and Chang Lee in San Francisco.

Jacobs' next major draft was ready on August 18th. In this version, the
Master no longer killed Sam Lee but instead read his mind, learning that
it was Sam who killed Chang Lee's father. The Master's plan was now to
channel the emotional upswell of New Year's Eve through the Eye of
Harmony, thereby reshaping the universe to his design, although the death
dimension was still involved. The appearances towards the end of Jimmy
Lee, Grace's grandmother and the Doctor's mother were all excised, and
the Doctor's half-human retinal print was now important as the focus of
the Master's control over the death dimension. The Doctor and the Master
now battled around the Eye of Harmony instead of inside it and, at the
climax, the Master was sucked down into the death dimension. Both Grace
and Chang Lee were killed this time around, only to be brought back to
life by the Eye of Harmony.

Philip Segal now aspired to make six Doctor Who telefilms per year

As summer wound down, Segal was hoping to record Doctor Who in
November; British Columbia would be the production's base of operations,
but some filming in San Francisco was also planned. Rather than launch
an ongoing series, Segal had now come to prefer the idea of regular
telefilms, and aspired to make six per year. The notion of remaking old
Doctor Who adventures had not been entirely abandoned, but Segal
now felt that a better target was those stories which were no longer
held in the BBC archives. It was around this time that Jean-Marc and
Randy Lofficier's advisory role on the project ended. The relationship
between Segal and the Lofficiers would subsequently sour when much of the
production material which Segal had given them was transformed into a
book, Doctor Who: The Nth Doctor, released by Virgin Publishing in
1996.

At the start of September, Segal found yet another producer being added to
Doctor Who. This time it was Universal who wanted a representative
in the production office -- particularly to oversee the project's finances
-- and appointed Alex Beaton, a veteran of programmes such as Kung
Fu and The Greatest American Hero. To play the Eighth Doctor,
the BBC still wanted Paul McGann, and vetoed the FOX network's preferred
choice of singer and sometime actor Sting. Meanwhile, Segal left Amblin
to form Lakeshore Television, which was affiliated with Paramount
Pictures. Spielberg allowed Segal to take Doctor Who with him, and
Segal elected to work on the project directly through Beaton and
Universal.

Jacobs' next significant draft appeared on September 18th. The death
dimension was dropped, with the focus of the Master's schemes now an
“intergalactic roving force field” called the Millennium Star
which passed near Earth every thousand years. The Master intended to use
the Eye of Harmony to harness the power of the Millennium Star, permitting
him to refashion the universe. The Master posed as a “false
messiah” in order to influence Grace and Chang Lee. The Doctor no
longer experienced a vision of his mother shortly after his regeneration;
instead, this was brought about by the Master during their confrontation
at the Eye of Harmony.

Philip Segal wanted to evoke the Jules Verne feel of the
Season Fourteen TARDIS console room, but on a much grander scale

It was at this stage that some of the key crewmembers started to come
aboard, most notably British director Geoffrey Sax, whose work included
episodes of Spitting Image, Bergerac and Lovejoy. Sax
was recommended to Segal by Wright when he was unable to hire his
original choice, Stuart Gillard (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III).
Because the movie would be filmed in British Columbia, Canadian
regulations meant that the rest of the crew would mostly come from that
country. This included production designer Richard Hudolin, whose major
task was a new version of the TARDIS console room. Segal wanted to evoke
the Jules Verne feel of the wood-panelled set designed by Barry Newbery
for use during Season Fourteen -- but on a much grander scale.

It was now planned that the telefilm would air on FOX in mid-May 1996.
This was one of three key “sweeps” periods for the American
networks (the others falling in November and February), when ratings
performance determined advertising rates for the next quarter.
Consequently, there would be lofty expectations for Doctor Who.
Meanwhile, both FOX and Universal had approved Jacobs' script, leaving
only the BBC. Segal was becoming concerned that further delays on this
front might threaten the start of preproduction, and so he arranged a
meeting between Jacobs and BBC Head of Serials Michael Wearing on
October 4th, out of which several more changes arose.

The story now began with the Doctor transporting the Master's remains back
to Gallifrey, only to have the Master escape in his snake form. The TARDIS
landed on Earth and the Seventh Doctor was inadvertently killed (which
was now a result of Chang Lee's actions rather than the Master's, and
would eventually become a Chinatown gang shoot-out). Bruce was an
ambulance attendant who tended to the Doctor, Chang Lee allied with the
Master out of sheer greed, and Gareth worked for a company which made
technologically advanced clocks. From this, Jacobs wrote a new draft
script for November 13th. This introduced the idea of the Master being
tried and executed by the Daleks, satisfying the BBC's desire to include
the iconic monsters in some fashion. Also new was the Doctor needing a
beryllium atomic clock from Gareth's workplace (here specified as
KAL-Tech, but later changed to ITAR -- the Institute for Technological
Advancement and Research). The clock's inventor was named Professor Wagg
as a tribute to Peter Wagg's involvement in the project.

Universal was now uncomfortable about its share of the
budget, and Philip Segal was on the verge of giving an ultimatum

Around the same time, Segal was facing new struggles with Universal, who
was uncomfortable about its share of the project's budget: FOX was
responsible for $2.5 million, the BBC for $300,000, and Universal and
BBC Worldwide for $2.2 million. Segal made tentative inquiries to see if
Paramount was interested in taking Universal's place in the deal, but they
declined. Segal was on the verge of giving Universal an ultimatum -- to
either commit fully to the project, or else release Segal and allow him to
search for yet another production partner. On November 6th, messages
purporting to be from Segal appeared in various online Doctor Who
forums suggesting that Universal's reticence had placed the project in
jeopardy. The messages pleaded with fans to inundate Universal with
letters and calls, and even released Universal President Tom Thayer's
phone number. Reportedly, fans then proceeded to bring Thayer's office
to a standstill, despite the protests of a Universal employee that the
situation had been misunderstood, and that the project was
proceeding.

Finally, on November 27th, the deal was done. Sixty-three months after
former producer John Nathan-Turner's departure from the BBC had signalled
the closure of the Doctor Who production office, its doors were
thrown open again halfway around the world, in Burnaby, British Columbia.
Segal, Wright and Beaton would serve as executive producers for the
telefilm, while the day-to-day production duties fell to Peter V Ware, who
had been a co-producer on Columbo. All the studio material would be
shot on a Burnaby sound stage, while location filming was now confined to
Vancouver -- San Francisco itself would be represented only by stock
footage.

With production now just weeks away, Jacobs was working on fashioning his
script into a finished form. The BBC was much more receptive to his
November draft, but passed it along to in-house script editor Craig
Dickson for comment. From this came the decision to eliminate the
Millennium Star concept, with the Master's focus now simply to take over
the Doctor's body. Jacobs produced a draft shooting script on December
29th, by which time most of the narrative elements of the telefilm were
finalised. Other small changes eventually made included changing Grace's
surname from Wilson to Holloway, and eliminating the Bill And Ted
reference (which the BBC felt was dated) by giving Bill the new name
Pete. Much of Chang Lee's background was lost for timing reasons, with
all references to Sam and Jimmy Lee having been dropped.

Jo Wright wanted Tom Baker to appear instead of Sylvester
McCoy

Meanwhile, attention turned to finalising the movie's cast. Sylvester
McCoy had already agreed to reprise his role as the Seventh Doctor,
fulfilling a promise he had made to himself in 1989 to hand off to a
successor in proper fashion. Wright had wanted Fourth Doctor Tom Baker to
appear instead, but Segal was now adamant that the telefilm continue on
from where the original series had left off. Segal also briefly considered
including a role for Sophie Aldred as Ace, the Seventh Doctor's final
companion, but this was vetoed by the BBC. Segal decided to give the
Seventh Doctor a new wardrobe, having long disliked both the umbrella and
the question-mark pullover which were hallmarks of his original image.
Costume designer Jori Woodman composed a new outfit which echoed the
earlier version but appeared much more refined; to Segal's delight, McCoy
would also wear the hat he had sported throughout his time on Doctor
Who.

Paul McGann remained Segal's choice to play the Eighth Doctor, but FOX
was still unconvinced, and wanted a wider range of options to choose from.
Consequently, in December, casting director Beth Hymson-Ayer considered a
number of further possibilities, including Alan Davies (Jonathan
Creek), Alfred Molina (Chocolat), Julian Sands (The Killing
Fields), Arnold Vosloo (The Mummy), and Peter Weller
(RoboCop). Segal and Sax also ranked Harry Van Gorkum highly; he
had amassed only a small number of minor television credits, including
roles on Brush Strokes and The Bill.

Finally, Segal offered to cast a “name” performer in the
role of the Master if FOX would sign off on McGann to play the Doctor.
The network acquiesced, and in late December, the actor was persuaded to
accept the role -- helped by the knowledge that his friend McCoy would
be participating. McGann had been acting since childhood, as had his
brothers Joseph, Mark and Stephen, with whom he'd recently appeared in
The Hanging Gale. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic
Art, McGann was best known for the television series The Monocled
Mutineer and the cult film Withnail and I. His other movie
roles included Empire Of The Sun, Alien 3 and the 1993
version of The Three Musketeers.

Philip Segal wanted Christopher Lloyd to play the Master,
but by the time Universal consented he was no longer available

In the end, Universal pushed for Eric Roberts -- despite the fact that his
fee would be greater than what Lloyd had requested. The brother of
Pretty Woman star Julia Roberts, Eric Roberts had been a student
at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he had watched and enjoyed
Doctor Who in the mid-Seventies. Roberts broke into television as
a castmember on the soap opera Another World and soon moved into
film, earning an Academy Award nomination for Runaway Train. His
subsequent career had been muted by an addiction to drugs, which Roberts
had publicly sworn off in 1995. At Roberts' request, his wife Eliza was
given the minor role of Bruce's wife, Miranda. His young daughter Emma
(who would later become a well-known actor in her own right, with films
including Scream 4 and television series such as American
Horror Story) would also be present during production.

Daphne Ashbrook had recently appeared in an episode of
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Actresses whom Hymson-Ayer considered for Grace included Kristen Alfonso
(Days Of Our Lives), Maria Bello (ER), Erika Eleniak
(Baywatch), Stacy Haiduk (seaQuest DSV), Marcia Gay Harden
(Pollock), Kelly Lynch (Drugstore Cowboy), Carrie Ann Moss
(The Matrix), Nia Peeples (the television version of Fame),
Mia Sara (Ferris Bueller's Day Off), Helen Slater
(Supergirl), and Ally Walker (Profiler). Ultimately, the
part went to Daphne Ashbrook, who had grown up as part of a family of
actors and dropped out of college to pursue the same profession. Ashbrook
had parlayed a series of guest appearances in programmes like Knight
Rider and The A-Team into more regular roles in Our Family
Honor and Falcon Crest. She had recently played the title role
in the Melora episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

With the start of principal photography rapidly approaching, the
Doctor Who movie still faced a number of hurdles. Sax had
originally been promised a thirty-day shoot, but Beaton subsequently
curtailed this to twenty-five days in order to save money. Finances were
also a concern when Segal discovered that the rights to the familiar
Doctor Who theme music were not owned by the BBC, but by
Warner/Chappel Music. Universal only reluctantly agreed to pay the hefty
fee for its use. The new theme arrangement would be composed by John
Sponsler and John Debney. Then, on January 7th, 1996 McGann arrived in
British Columbia sporting a severe haircut he had worn for the TV movie
The One That Got Away. Segal had expected the same wild,
overgrown style that McGann had had during his auditions; instead,
hairstylist Julie McHaffie had to hastily put together a wig for McGann
to wear.

Meanwhile, Richard Hudolin had completed work on the enormous TARDIS set,
only a small fraction of which would actually be seen in the finished
movie. Enormous detail went into the design -- everything from busts of
Rassilon visible in the cloister room, to a roundel-type design on the
main doors which would echo the look of the original console room. Every
control on the main console actually did something, and the rotating
panels which indicated the current location and era made numerous
references to Doctor Who lore, including the Sensorites (The Sensorites), the Kraals (The Android Invasion), Calufrax (The Pirate Planet), Argolis (The Leisure Hive), Manussa and the Sumarans
(Snakedance), and Sarn (Planet Of Fire).

On January 10th, Paul McGann was unveiled to the world as
the Eighth Doctor

The first recording for the telefilm took place at the start of January,
when the news reports were taped at the studio of local station BCTV.
Then, on January 10th, McGann was unveiled to the world as the Eighth
Doctor. Filming resumed in earnest with the material at Grace's condo,
shot at a private residence on Ogden Avenue from January 15th to 17th; the
sequence in the park was also completed on the middle day at nearby Hadden
Park. Eric Roberts joined the production on the 17th, and unfortunately he
found that the outfit created for him by Woodman in the style of the
original Master, Roger Delgado, was too restrictive. He was also
uncomfortable with the serpentine contact lenses he was supposed to wear,
and with the prosthetics which were intended to depict his body's
gradual disintegration over the course of the movie. The result was that
the effect of Bruce's body wearing out was essentially lost, and it was
decided to instead dress Roberts in dark sunglasses and a leather jacket
for most of the telefilm.

On January 18th and 19th, the Plaza of Nations served as the ITAR
building. Recording overran so badly on the second day that Sax had to
abandon some elements of the Doctor and Grace's escape, because dawn was
breaking. The 22nd was spent on ambulance interiors at the studio in
Burnaby. Cast and crew then moved to the telefilm's major location:
British Columbia Children's Hospital, where they would remain from January
23rd to 30th (omitting the 27th and 28th) for the scenes at Walker
General. The production was confined to a wing of the hospital which was
slated to be demolished; as such, the heat was turned off, resulting in
frigid conditions for the cast and crew. The Seventh Doctor's
years-delayed regeneration was finally recorded on the 26th.

It was back to the studio on January 31st for more ambulance footage, as
well as sequences in the TARDIS console room and the area where the
Master's casket was placed. The alley where the TARDIS materialised was
actually between East Georgia Street and Union Street, where filming on
February 1st and 2nd represented McCoy's final work on Doctor Who.
Part of the 2nd was also dedicated to the motorcycle chase, on the
premises of CN Rail. On February 5th, the Walker General parking garage
was actually the Golden Crown Centre, while the establishing shot of
Chinatown was recorded at a home on Keefer Street. The next day, the
intersection of Keefer Street and Carrall Street was the site of the
traffic jam (caused by chickens rather than escaped circus animals for
budgetary reasons). The last location day for the main unit was February
7th, when the Doctor's farewell to Grace was shot at Andy Livingston
Park -- unfortunately amidst heavy rain, which caused McGann's wig to
frizz badly. A second unit completed additional street inserts on
Waterfront Road the following day.

Three additional days would have to be tacked onto the end
of the production calendar

The remainder of the telefilm was then recorded at the Burnaby sound
stage, beginning on the 8th with all of the material in Bruce's
apartment together with more shots of the casket area in the TARDIS. The
console room was the focus on February 9th, 10th and 12th, with the two
latter days also dealing with the remaining ambulance footage. The
Master's trial on Skaro was also completed on the 10th, with Gordon
Tipple appearing in long shot as the evil Time Lord. (At this point,
Tipple was also intended to provide the opening narration, in character
as the Master). In fact, February 10th had been a scheduled day off, but
Sax's concerns about the abbreviated schedule were being borne out. It
was now clear that three additional days would have to be tacked onto
the end of the production calendar, driving up the budget by $170,000.
The haste meant that some script problems -- such as the question of how
the Master had gotten into the TARDIS when he first encountered Chang
Lee -- simply had to be ignored.

Most of the remaining action took place in the cloister room, where
filming was now scheduled to occur from February 13th to 20th (omitting
the 17th and 18th). Sax had hoped to have all of the Doctors appear in the
Eye of Harmony, but could not get clearance to use the images quickly
enough. The race against time meant that the director had to simplify
Chang Lee's death; as scripted, he broke his neck when he was hurled
across the cloister room by the Master. Also taped was additional
material in the ITAR stairwell (on the 14th) and in the casket area (on
the 20th). Finally, principal photography wrapped up on February 21st,
back on the console room set. By now, former Doctor Who script
editor Eric Saward had contacted Segal with an offer to write for any
follow-up series.

Post-production saw various trims to the material, such as the loss of the
scene where the Master confronted the security guards who were later
found “slimed”, as well as more violence in the shootout
such as Chang Lee reloading and returning fire. The Dalek voices --
provided by Sax himself -- were meant to be in keeping with those heard
in the original Doctor Who series, but were changed due to
concerns that they weren't sufficiently audible for an American
audience. Segal loaned a rough cut of the movie to Los Angeles-based fan
Shaun Lyon, organiser of the Gallifrey One conventions and editor of the
Outpost Gallifrey website. It was Lyon who caught several
dialogue errors, most notably a reference to the Doctor having only
twelve lives, rather than the appropriate thirteen.

At ManoptiCon 4, Philip Segal suggested that an
appropriate title for the telefilm could be “Enemy
Within”

Segal also had to deal with various claims for credit from individuals who
had worked on earlier stages of the project. Despite the objections of
FOX and Universal, Segal won agreement for John and Ros Hubbard to be
credited in recognition of the fact that they had first brought McGann
to his attention. On the other hand, John Leekley's case for a
producer's credit was rejected, as it was deemed that virtually nothing
remained of his work. Meanwhile, at the ManoptiCon 4 convention in early
April, Segal confirmed that the telefilm would have no onscreen title
except Doctor Who, but suggested that an appropriate name could
be “Enemy Within”.

The first trailers for Doctor Who began airing on the FOX network
on April 12th, during the classic Jose Chung's From Outer Space
episode of The X-Files. The movie had its first broadcast on May
12th on CITV out of Edmonton, Alberta. This marked just the third time a
Doctor Who story had received its first transmission outside of
Britain (following The Five Doctors and the
final two episodes of Silver Nemesis). On
May 13th, the telefilm was screened by two other Canadian stations: ASN
in Atlantic Canada and CHEK in Victoria, British Columbia.

May 14th was the day of reckoning for Doctor Who, as the movie was
screened on the FOX network at 8.00pm Eastern Standard Time as part of
the Tuesday Night Movie strand (with a simulcast on CHCH in Hamilton,
Ontario). Unfortunately, sweeps month opposition was fierce, particularly
in the form of the Heart & Soul episode of Roseanne on ABC,
in which popular character Dan Conner (played by John Goodman) suffered a
heart attack. Doctor Who earned an audience of 5.5 million viewers
-- placing it joint 75th for the week -- and a 9 share (a statistic
which measured the number of televisions watching the telefilm as a
percentage of all sets turned on during that period of time). These
results were far smaller than the minimum 15 share which Segal felt was
needed to interest FOX in an ongoing series (or even additional movies),
and nowhere close to the 17 or 18 share for which he had been hoping.
Doctor Who had also fallen short of the 11 share average for the
Tuesday Night Movie slot. Even before the telefilm received its BBC
broadcast, it was already clear that FOX would not be greenlighting
another Doctor Who project in any form. When the network's Fall
1996 schedule was announced on May 21st, Doctor Who was
conspicuous by its absence.

Even before the BBC broadcast, it was clear that FOX would
not be greenlighting another Doctor Who
project in any form

For a long time, the British transmission date had been uncertain, with
airdates from mid-May to Christmas being bandied about. Finally, it was
announced that the movie would air at 8.30pm on May 27th, Bank Holiday
Monday, preceded by a video release on May 15th. This upset BBC Video,
who feared that the close proximity would badly eat into their profits.
To make matters worse, the British Board of Film Classification decided
that the version of the movie aired in North America deserved a 15
certificate. The main offender was the shootout; the British
entertainment industry had been treading carefully when it came to
depictions of gun violence ever since the March 13th shooting deaths of
sixteen children and a teacher at a school in Dunblane, Scotland. In
order to obtain the 12 certificate that BBC Video wanted, about two
minutes worth of edits had to be made, and this delayed the video
release until May 22nd, even closer to the broadcast date. When the
telefilm finally emerged, a dedication to the Third Doctor, Jon Pertwee,
had been added to its end. The actor had passed away on May 20th, and
the tribute was suggested to Yentob by both Segal and Kevin Davies,
director of the Doctor Who documentary Thirty Years In The
TARDIS.

Unlike in North America, the Doctor Who movie was successful in
the UK, earning nine million viewers -- although this was still about
three million shy of the BBC's goal. Regardless, without a co-production
partner, the BBC was right back where it started. FOX had essentially
dismissed the property after it fumbled so badly in the ratings, and
Universal had been more interested in ensuring that its science-fiction
series Sliders (which it owned completely) was renewed, rather
than supporting Doctor Who. Although FOX maintained for some time
that the network might consider revisiting the property at a later date,
such statements were merely lip service. When former Doctor Who
writers Pip and Jane Baker (who had most recently penned Time And The Rani) contacted Segal in June to
enquire about contributing a script, he acknowledged the unlikelihood
that he would be making more Doctor Who.

Universal's license for Doctor Who was due to expire at the end of
1996, but they were granted an extension into 1997 by the BBC. FOX was
out of the picture entirely by this time; indeed, those responsible for
bringing Doctor Who to the network in the first place -- such as
Trevor Walton -- were no longer on staff, and the new regime was
uninterested in programming instigated by its predecessors. Ultimately,
Universal had no luck in attracting any other entity to Doctor
Who, and they allowed their option to run out. Except for a comedy
skit, The Curse Of Fatal Death, which aired as part of the BBC's
Comic Relief charity drive in March 1999, Doctor Who would
be absent from television screens for the rest of the twentieth
century.

In 1998, Philip Segal considered remaking the two Dalek
feature films from the 1960s

In 1998, Philip Segal briefly entered into discussions with the BBC about
the rights to remake the two Dalek feature films from the Sixties, but
quickly decided there was little potential in the venture. Soon
thereafter he became heavily involved in producing reality programming,
including Storage Wars and Ice Road Truckers; he also
directed episodes of science-fiction shows like Andromeda and
Mutant X. In 2000, HarperCollins published Doctor Who:
Regeneration, an account of the making of the TV movie which Segal
cowrote with Gary Russell.

Eric Roberts continued to maintain a prolific acting career, with regular
roles on programmes such as Heroes and The Young And The
Restless, and film appearances including The Dark Knight and
The Expendables. Daphne Ashbrook kept a steady profile on
television, with her recurring credits including JAG, The OC
and Hollywood Heights. She also returned to the world of Doctor
Who through multiple appearances in audio plays for Big Finish
Productions, beginning with The Next Life in December 2004.

However, it would prove to be Paul McGann who would have the most enduring
association with Doctor Who -- an ironic twist of fate, given his
initial reticence to commit to the programme for even five years. He
continued to make numerous television appearances, including the
Horatio Hornblower movies, True Dare Kiss, Jonathan
Creek and Luther. On the big screen, McGann could be seen in
FairyTale: A True Story and Queen Of The Damned, amongst
others. But it was in 2001 that McGann agreed to reprise the role of the
Eighth Doctor for Big Finish, with that year's Storm Warning
becoming the first of dozens of audio plays he would record. Then, in
2013, McGann finally got a second chance to film an appearance as the
Doctor, when he was recruited by Doctor Who showrunner Steven
Moffat to make a surprise appearance in The Night Of The Doctor, an
online prologue to the fiftieth-anniversary special The Day Of The Doctor.